


Come To Sea, Come Home, Come Adventure

by fifiefum



Series: USUK Week 2020 [3]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe, Boats and Ships, Eventual Romance, M/M, Pining, Pirate and Herbalist Au, Pirates, Romance, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25130488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fifiefum/pseuds/fifiefum
Summary: Alfred tries to chase after someone who's been sailing the seas for three years by seducing visiting sailors during the town festival into giving him a free trip to the sea and his beloved.
Relationships: America/England (Hetalia)
Series: USUK Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815445
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	Come To Sea, Come Home, Come Adventure

**Author's Note:**

> Day 4 of USUK Week || Free Day | Nautical AU

The far horizon was golden in the last minutes of the day's daylight. A distinct difference to the fierce red of the morning when Alfred went out to chop wood as soon as he woke up. He had been expecting a shower of rain the whole day but not even a drop fell from the sky; even though the clouds in the east were plentiful. Alfred stalled for a while, admiring the red of the sky reflected in the calm waters of the little port town he grew up in. A gust of wind blew, shaking the hilltop trees beside him and down and over to the sails of the ships docked by the bay of the port. 

The town's lights were burning brilliantly against the dark backdrop of the star-kissed night sky. Cheers and peals of laughter were echoing away from the heart of the port and to where Alfred stood-- at the crown of the third hill of the island. The yearly festival of the town was pulsing with life.

The young man couldn't resist a carefree grin curving his lips. There were lots of ships resting from their adventures tonight. Big, beautiful ships from her numerous voyages with her roughed-up, handsome sailors. Not that the other people his age in their little port weren't pretty, Alfred just thinks they lack the... uh, appeal... to captivate him like how the people crossing the seas ever did. Was it their experience? Yes, that aspect _probably_ played a part in his attraction to others. But it was mostly because he could travel along the seas with them if he ever ensnared a sailor. 

So far, Alfred ensnared no one (Except for that one time with a local bard due to a small lapse of his judgment).

Fastening his grip on his full satchel, Alfred took a deep breath and turned around gave the last, possibly, good-bye to the cottage he called his home for the last nineteen years of his boring life. _Bang!_ One of the windows suddenly opened, revealing his disgruntled older brother shaking his fist.

"It's been _three years_ , Al! And you already have a match, for how long are you going to keep this up?!" Matthew yelled, his voice reverberated down on the hill and to Alfred.

Alfred formed a cone around his mouth with his hands. "Until I finally get on a ship and physically drag him back!" 

Even with the distance, he saw his brother's disappointing frown. Matthew never understood him. _No one in town ever did._ Alfred whirled around, having enough of the daily reprimands his brother gives him every time he ventures down to the port. Don't get him wrong, he appreciates his brother's worry for him but Matthew will never understand his will to find that annoying best friend and lover of his. That guy was probably frolicking with some busty lady with rum and jewels surrounding him. Alfred clicked his tongue unconsciously, the mere thought of him made him both annoyed and more encouraged as ever.

"Oi, Al, don't forget to pick up some thyme when you've had enough of the sailors!" Matthew bellowed for the last time before Alfred sprinted down the path of the hill. _Gah!_ Alfred's had enough of his life in town and he'd _die_ from crushing herbs and selling medicine for the rest of his life. An exaggeration. He hopes no one would toss him off the deck since he was an expert in herbal medicine.

At least that would never happen if he fails to find a ship tonight. And he'd never considered stowing away, so that's off the list. Alfred knows too much what happens to a stowaway. A shiver ran up his spine as he continued to run with the salty wind. With all dangers of sea travel in his mind, he prayed again that night that he'd never meet a scoundrel. Or worse-- a pirate.

But the chances of meeting one are slim in a nameless island port town in the outskirts of a kingdom.

* * *

The music of the flutes and guitars was loud and lively, people in the town plaza were dancing and whooping with laughter and joy. Lights from the hanging lanterns glowed like honey under the night sky and warmed the merry townsfolk and sailors. Alfred struggled to pave a way through the dancing people and to the tavern at the end of the plaza. He mussed up his wheat hair, desperately trying not to be noticed by the celebrators lest they drag him into dancing with them. Or call for _Natalia_.

Alfred scanned left and right, still in the crowd being pushed everywhere by the others and the melodies. He saw no sign of a mop of blonde hair lighter than his. He couldn't help relief from heaving a sigh out of his lips. And for a while, space loosened amidst the crowd and Alfred wriggled his way out of the bunch and into the open doors of the tavern.

The cheers and the chattering in the tavern were less noisy than the festivities outside, though still as rowdy. Most of the ones inside were drunken sailors and sailors who were failing in seducing the barmaids. Alfred proceeded to the counter and sat on the last stool on the end, straining his ears to hear the dialogue of the men behind him. 

A glass of grape rum propped up in front of him. "You really should stop this past-time of yours, Al," the barkeep chided him, though she said that with a wry grin on her face, "But if you make them stay a bit _longer_ and make their pockets loose and generous, who am I to stop you?"

He only shook his head and picked up his glass. Alfred studied the drinking, the drunks, and the miraculously sober in the tavern. Tables were full of sailors, their drinks, and pie. He sipped the given drink slowly and asked the barkeep, "Are there any captains getting shit-faced, around? With the drinks you're serving tonight, it's so much easier to try and convince them."

"Natalia would have your head if you tried to bed one of them again."

Alfred chuckled, "Not if she wants to go through the trouble of getting an ' _adequate_ ' husband again." Head resting on the palm of his hand, he continued, "The only other herbalist in town is my brother and he's gonna marry her cousin this summer. It'll at least take her another few years to find someone like me, you know!"

The barkeep scoffed playfully at his words, "Nobody is as brash as you around here, Alfred Jones. But..." She had a smug look as she took out a pie from one of the ovens. Alfred raised a brow and gestured with his free hand to prompt her as he chugged down the rest of the drink. "There _was_ some guy who almost mauled his 'first mate' because of a snide comment a few moments before you walked in."

He almost spat out the rum in his mouth, but his eyes went comically wide. _'His first mate'?!_ There _was_ a ship captain out and about instead of inspecting their ships! Alfred gulped down the drink, it burned his throat and made his blood warm. "Is he still here?!"

She only smiled in response, her green eyes twinkling mischievously. "Alfred, be a dear and deliver this pie to that table near the sea-facing window."

Alfred gave her a look but he still took the tray with the dessert. "You're as pretty as you are guileful, Liz." She turned to prepare another batch of drinks, her long brown hair almost slapping Alfred across his face.

"Why, thank you."

He huffed. So the drink wasn't free, then. Even when he entertains her customers and made them stay until morning. Alfred sauntered to the aforementioned table and placed the tray gently (You can't just put a pie down haphazardly, that's asking for a fight!). He looked up to see a raven-haired man, brunnet, an anxious blond man. The blond guy had a swollen cheek on his exasperated face. 

"Uhh, you're the ones who ordered this pie, right?"

The three men stayed silent. They had such gloomy expressions it made Alfred feel bad doing his nightly conquests. But his self-righteous quest like searching for his lover was a great deal heavier than consoling three men who ordered a pie. Alfred should probably not try anything on these three; they really looked like they killed a person's hopes and dreams and lived to bear it. Just as he was about to excuse himself from such a depressed trio, the blond guy suddenly slammed his fist on the table.

"H-hey, are you--"

The guy's swollen face whirled around and came close to his; Alfred took a step back. " _I'm tired of it!_ I'm tired of him being such a young master! Ah, I want him to drown in his rum and! And...!" The strange man bawled and caressed the edges of the pie, "Even so...for a captain, he's so _pitiful_...! You agree, right?"

"What are--"

"Here!" The injured blond shoved the pie to him, " _You_ bring it to the captain in the barn. I can't handle him right now!" Then he continued sobbing on the table, softly punching it with his fist. Alfred could only gape at the other two men that refused to look at him and instead stared outside the window with deadpan expressions. 

_Just what did he get into?_

Alfred sighed and went out with a freshly-baked pie in his hands to the little barn on the other side of the tavern. The festivities in the plaza were still going on but the tavern's barn was always empty and dark. And cold. But if Alfred were to personally deliver this to the injured man's captain, he could hitch a ride to the next step of finding his lover. Maybe. If the captain wasn't a blacked-out drunk already and making the cow and chickens his _roommates_. Ah, the animals were transferred to a new barn so maybe not.

_Clink! Clonk!_ The rhythmic sound of metal against the stoned pathways of the town plaza resounded loudly even with the loud voices in the festival in the center. _Oh, no._ NO! Alfred felt the warmth of the rum leave his body and early winter settled in his bone. The sound of armored boots stepping on the stone can only mean one and only one thing-- _Natalia is here!_

To say Alfred wasn't scared shitless of his fiancee was a _big, fat lie_. She was so stubborn in making him her husband because he was the only herbalist who wasn't married yet. Alfred was equally as stubborn as to chase after someone who hasn't even stepped on their home island for three years. So, _of course_ , it was a problem for both of them!

He hurried his steps to the barn, taking extra precaution with the pie, and locked the doors shut as soon as he entered it. Cold sweat ran down from his neck and down his spine. If Natalia caught him flirting in Elizabeta's tavern again, she'd _torture_ him rather than killing him to end his misery. 

The clanging metal slowly went away. Alfred slumped his body against the wooden doors, sliding down and sitting on the hay-infested floor of the barn. He sighed, the beating of his heart was loud in his ears. Alfred stared into the semi-darkness inside the barn. Slivers of light went through the spaces between the wooden walls. The outside noise was muted and far away. 

Yeah, he can still do this. If his lover with his smaller frame craved for adventure, then Alfred could do the same. _All in the name of love..._

Alfred stared at the pie in his hands. Minced pie, it was a favorite of--

"Nggh..." Someone groaned in the darkness. Right. Alfred still had to give the pie to the trio's captain.

He stood up and walked over to the direction of the sound. The young man was blindly reaching out in the darkness using his other hand. He spotted a hunched figure, a large but faint stripe of yellow light on the man. He finally got close and shook the man's shoulder. The man groaned, still face-first as he lay on the pile on hay. _Oof, that's gonna itch in the morning._ Alfred shook the captain more roughly this time. He heard a faint ' _Wasssit_ ' from the man but the guy still hadn't moved an inch. Alfred resisted pulling on the captain's tied back messy, yellow hair. "Hey, man, you gotta get up if you want to eat."

"... Wha.. ha?" The captain finally, at a slow pace, lifted his face to face the annoyed expression on Alfred. Bleary emeralds so familiar ogled him, with drool on the edge on the man's mouth. That... _that face!_ Alfred stared in shock as the brows of the man drew together. _Those eyebrows!_ He'd _never_ forget someone with eyebrows like that! And the only one who had eyebrows like that was his lover with the name of--

"Arthur?!"

Arthur sobered up instantly, recognition and awe and shock all over his half-drunk face. "What in the-- Alfred! What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that! What're _you_ doing here of all places?" Alfred shook his head, his grip tightened on the pie, "Nevermind that, why didn't you come to see _me_ first?!" Questions, he had so many questions. Was this why Liz had that smile on her when he came in? Because this guy was back?! Alfred was so going to kill him.

"Wait--Wait! Let me-- let me explain!"

"You better explain! What were you _thinking_ , leaving this island without me and coming back some _three_ years later?"

Alfred's heart was beating with happiness and curiosity and a faint trace of hurt in the back of his heart. _Arthur_ was _here_! After three years-- Wait, he shouldn't get ahead of himself. His lover left him for three years! _Three_! Were they still even lovers? Alfred placed the pie on the ground and latched his hands on the shoulders of the other man. Arthur had a dumb look on his face, the same one he had when every time he woke up from a nap years ago. Alfred felt his chest tighten from just this...

"Arthur. _You_ are going to tell me _everything_."

And his found lover did. In his drunk and sleep-addled voice that Alfred missed. In the semi-darkness of the barn, the old lovers spoke and ate mince pie throughout the night. The celebration and its noise outside never stopped them from exchanging words of love and embraces full of affection.

"I thought you said you'd never come back." Alfred and Arthur were on their sides facing each other on the pile of hay. It was a bit itchy but Alfred found it comfortable with Arthur in his arms.

"Well, I'm here now." Arthur looked at him in the eyes, the truth in his new never disappearing for even a moment. "But I'm not coming back ever again."

"...Even for me?" His grip around his lover's waist tensing, "Arthur, why did you come back to this backwater island?"

Arthur's green eyes softened, misting in the edges. "I came back for you. You were always in my mind and every time I think of you and your smile, it makes my heartache. You were so far away. But not any more so..." he took Alfred's hands in his, " So come with me, Alfred. Let's look for adventure. Together."

The only thing in Alfred's mind was how he loved Arthur so much and the warmth of Arthur's hand on his. He'd never let that hand go again.

"Together?"

"Yes."

Alfred already had his satchel ready for the last three years.

_Extra:_

_"This ship looks like she's been through too many fights... too many scars on the floorboard."_

_"Er, yes..."_

_"Wait a minute, why does this ship have the kingdom's insignia all scratched up? Merchant ships have to have clear insignias!"_

_"Well, uh--"_

_"Arthur, is there something you're not telling me?"_

_"..."_

_"This is a pirate ship, isn't it? Really, Art?"_

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired and based on this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4TIQXCmPQ and the drabble prompt of this fic has been sitting in my notes app for almost a year. And now, I finally have a reason to finally finish it!
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked it! uwu
> 
> [I'm on Tumblr (fifielady.tumblr.com) and Instagram (@-/fifie.fum) if you want to find me]


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